News review – Wednesday 26 June 2019

Brexit

BBC News
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt say they are serious about pushing for a no-deal Brexit if they are unable to negotiate a better withdrawal agreement with Brussels. Yet the EU seems unfazed. Why, when we know EU leaders want to avoid a no-deal Brexit? Part of the reason, at least, is time. It’s summer. European capitals are sweltering under a heatwave with government ministers counting the days until they hit the beach or find some cool mountain air. The day the Brexit extension runs out – 31 October – seems an eternity away in political terms.

Breitbart
Tory heavyweight Boris Johnson, one of the two men vying to capture the leadership of their party and hence become the next prime minister of the United Kingdom, has warned if the European Union opposed his plan to enact Brexit, they would be affecting a return to Napoleon Bonaparte’s failed 19th-century plan to bankrupt Britain. Boris Johnson’s comments, strongly implying Europe refusing to be cooperative over Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union would be a deliberate attempt to undermine and weaken the country, came as he was grilled on his plans for enacting Brexit, something he has promised to do by October 31st at the latest.

Telegraph
Boris Johnson has set out a three-point plan for Brexit as he made clear that “come what may, do or die” the UK will leave the European Union by October 31. Mr Johnson also clashed in two radio interviews over his admission that he snorted cocaine as a teenager and disclosed that he had an unlikely hobby – making toy buses out of old wine crates. Mr Johnson set out three different plans for taking Britain out of the European Union by October 31 during an interview on TalkRadio.

MailBoris Johnson warned that the country must ‘get ready to come out without an agreement if we must’ as he outlined his Brexit plans today – and categorically ruled out staying in the EU past October 31. Mr Johnson said Halloween was a ‘do or die’ date for the UK quitting the block and fired a broadside at rebellious Tory MPs, warning the party would ‘continue to haemorrhage voters’ if Brexit was not sorted fast. It came after he was accused of flip-flopping over the date, telling a leadership husting at the weekend Halloween was ’eminently feasible’ but not saying anything more concrete.

Sun
BORIS Johnson yesterday staked his Premiership chances on delivering Brexit by October 31 — telling Tory members it will happen “do or die”. In a toughening up of his stance, the Tory leadership frontrunner guaranteed for the first time he would meet the exit date. Boris challenged Mr Hunt to match his October 31 Brexit guarantee, “no ifs, no buts”. He tweeted: “If I become PM, we will leave the EU on 31st October, deal or no deal.” Later he told talkRADIO: “We are getting ready to come out on October 31. Come what may. Do or die.”

Times
Boris Johnson has pledged to “do or die” and take Britain out of Europe in four months’ time as polling shows that a no-deal Brexit is the first choice of one in four voters. The frontrunner in the Tory leadership race issued an ultimatum to Brussels yesterday to drop its insistence on an Irish backstop, which Brexiteers fear could leave Britain tied to the EU indefinitely. He also said he would not sign off the full £39 billion divorce settlement until a trade deal had been struck.

Express
INFLUENTIAL arch-Brexiteer Steve Baker, a prominent ally of Tory leadership front runner Boris Johnson, has sent a stern message to EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier – warning him Britain will be leaving the bloc on October 31. And he warned he and his colleagues would never be able to sign Britain up to any agreement which included the much-maligned backstop arrangements for the Irish border, underlining his belief it would leave the UK tethered to EU rules indefinitely.

BBC News
Tory leadership rivals Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt are at loggerheads over how the UK should leave the EU. Both contenders for prime minister claim they can renegotiate a Brexit deal that the EU says is closed. Mr Johnson said the UK must leave on 31 October “deal or no deal” but Mr Hunt called this a “fake deadline” that could trigger a general election if Parliament rejects a no-deal Brexit.

Hunt

Mail
Jeremy Hunt told MPs yesterday he ‘cannot envisage any situation’ in which Britain joins the US in a war against Iran. Amid rising tensions between Donald Trump and the Tehran regime, the Foreign Secretary said earlier this week that the UK would consider requests for support from the US military ‘on a case-by-case basis’. However, he insisted yesterday: ‘The US is our closest ally, we talk to them the whole time… I cannot envisage any situation where they request or we agree to any moves to go to war.’

Independent
Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has said he “cannot envisage” any scenario in which the UK would agree to join the US in waging war against Iran. The Tory leadership hopeful told MPs in the Commons that the Foreign Office is “very concerned about the situation in the Middle East and the risks of an accidental war” as the feud between Washington and Tehran escalates. “The US is our closest ally, we talk to them the whole time, we consider any requests that they say carefully, but I cannot envisage any situation where they request or we agree to any moves to go to war,” Mr Hunt told parliament.

Johnson

GuardianBoris Johnson has been filmed at a private garden party telling Conservative members that the NHS absolutely needs to be reformed, as he fired them up for a general election by asking them to be ready to “wallop Jeremy Corbyn”. The frontrunner to be Conservative leader and prime minister was videoed giving a rabble-rousing stump speech to members in Sutton Coldfield on Saturday, the day after the Guardian revealed that police had been called to his girlfriend’s flat following a late-night altercation.

Conservative Party

Mail
Conservative MPs have been placed on a war footing for the first week of the new prime minister’s term in office amid fears that opposition parties and rebel Tories will immediately try to topple their government. Chief Whip Julian Smith has told MPs they are on a three line whip – meaning they must attend and ready to vote with the Government – in the week beginning July 22.

IndependentBoris Johnson has been warned that as many as a dozen Conservative MPs will back a vote of no confidence, triggering a general election, to block a no-deal Brexit. The former foreign secretary has promised to take the UK out of the Europe Union on 31 October with or without an agreement on divorce terms. And his rival for the Tory leadership, Jeremy Hunt, the current foreign secretary, has not ruled out a potentially damaging no-deal outcome, though he says he is ready to extend Brexit negotiations in the hope of avoiding it.

Breitbart
A former Tory minister has said that nearly a dozen Conservative MPs would be willing to collapse their own government in order to stop potential future prime minister Boris Johnson from taking the UK out of the EU without a deal. The former minister, speaking anonymously to The Guardian, said: “I do think at least 10 would vote to bring down the government if the government was taking us into no deal.”

Westmonster
The Guido Fawkes blog has seen evidence that Conservative Party HQ is in the process of suspending members of the party for backing the Brexit Party in last month’s European elections. One long-standing member who spoke to the blog claims to have received the suspension for merely attending an event which featured Brexit Party speakers. The European elections, which were won by the Brexit Party by a significant margin, saw many traditional party loyalties eroded with the two traditional parties securing less than 23% of the nationwide vote.

Labour Party

IndependentJeremy Corbyn has been accused of more “muddle and confusion” after Labour again failed to agree a shift to fully back a further Brexit referendum. For the second week running, a shadow cabinet meeting broke up without reaching a consensus to end what has been widely criticised as fence-sitting by the Labour leader. One source told The Independent there was “no change” in referendum policy, while a second described “no movement”.

Mirror
Jeremy Corbyn faced an angry backlash from his closest allies after kicking his decision on a second referendum down the road. He had been expected to announce that he was backing a fresh public vote in all circumstances – and that Labour would support Remain. But after a crunch meeting with the unions – including powerful Unite chief Len McCluskey – Mr Corbyn opted to delay for several weeks. At a fiery shadow cabinet meeting, John McDonnell described Labour’s slow-moving position as “like watching a slow-motion car crash”.

Guardian
A tense meeting of Labour’s shadow cabinet failed to agree any advance on the party’s position on a second Brexit referendum, despite several senior figures saying they had been led to believe Jeremy Corbyn would soon give full-throated backing for remain. Corbyn is understood to have told shadow cabinet ministers there would be further consultation with the unions and a decision on the next step taken in the coming weeks, to the frustration of several present including the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell.

Evening Standard
Fears that moderate Labour MPs could be “purged” by Jeremy Corbyn supporters rose today with a former minister announcing that he will not be standing for re-election. The party’s HQ sparked major concerns among its MPs last night when it gave them just two weeks to decide whether they want to stand again at the next general election. It immediately sparked claims that Left-wing local party members would organise trigger ballots to replace moderate MPs within a matter of weeks.

Scotland

Guardian
Jeremy Hunt has been accused of trying to boost his Conservative leadership campaign by withdrawing Foreign Office (FCO) support for Nicola Sturgeon’s overseas visits. The foreign secretary has confirmed that he has ordered his department not to provide any official or consular support for Sturgeon’s trips abroad if she uses them to campaign for Scottish independence.

BBC News
Nicola Sturgeon wants to set up a Citizens’ Assembly to discuss the big constitutional questions facing Scotland. Here’s what we know so far about the assembly ahead of the Scottish government giving more details at Holyrood on Wednesday afternoon. The Citizens’ Assembly was first announced by Ms Sturgeon in April – but the plan was largely overshadowed at the time by the first minister also saying she wants another independence referendum within the next two years.

Star
HOLIDAYMAKERS have been warned to prepare for more chaotic delays and “unbelievable queues” as a strike at one of Scotland’s busiest airports tomorrow. Glasgow Airport workers who are part of the Unite union, including airport security officers, airport fire safety, airfield operations officers and engineering technicians, will be striking again. Strikes have been held on Friday 21 June from 8.30am to 2.30pm, Monday 24 June from 6am to 10am.

EU

Guido
There’s been plenty of huffing and puffing from anonymous EU officials in response to Boris’s alternative Brexit proposals – despite Jeremy Hunt’s actually being pretty similar. Behind the bluster however, the reality is significantly more sensible and level-headed… Steve Barclay and Michel Barnier have been exchanging a series of letters over the past few weeks. Barclay has been asking Barnier to guarantee citizens’ rights even if the rest of the deal fails to go through.

Illegal migration

Mail
A criminal network of Romanian lorry drivers made at least £3million smuggling illegal migrants into Britain, it emerged today. The astonishing figure was released by French police who made 17 arrests while smashing the human trafficking ring. It extended across Europe, and involved the drivers packing their lorries with a cargo of men, women and children. ‘Migrants were hidden in the storage compartments of vehicles under the guise of being goods being moved by Romanian transport companies,’ said a spokesman for Lille police.

Environment

Times
Women exposed to air pollution are at risk of earlier menopause, potentially damaging their chances of having children, scientists have said. Two separate studies have found that women who live in polluted neighbourhoods have a higher chance of their ovarian reserve — a measure of their egg supply — being abnormally low, reducing fertility. The scientists behind the research said it suggested that air pollution may speed the ageing of women’s reproductive systems.

Breitbart
As predicted, Theresa May’s lame-duck government has gone ahead and signed the £1 trillion suicide note committing the UK to ‘Net Zero’ decarbonisation by 2050. Do any of the incompetent, virtue-signalling pillocks — both on the Government and Opposition benches — who signed this piece of magical unicorn fairytale tosh have any idea what £1 trillion looks like? Here’s one helpful offering from the Global Warming Policy Foundation: With that sum of money, it points out, you could pay the salaries of 314,000 NHS nurses for a century.

NHS

Times
Doctors have voted overwhelmingly to stop charging foreign patients for NHS care, claiming that doing so is “fundamentally racist”. Up to 500 delegates at the British Medical Association’s annual conference in Belfast backed a motion that said that asking overseas visitors to pay made medical staff “complicit” in racism. “We are doctors not border guards,” Omar Risk said during the debate. “Charging migrants for accessing NHS services is a fundamentally racist endeavour — we are complicit in the oppressive regime.”

Sun
DOCTORS have backed a decision to stop billing foreign patients for NHS care — calling it “fundamentally racist”. Up to 500 medics voted overwhelmingly in favour of abandoning fees. Dr Jackie Appleby, proposing the motion, claimed they were a form of “racial profiling” and were not cost-effective. She said: “The cost of health tourism is disputed. It’s peanuts in the grand scheme of things.” Health tourism in the UK costs anything from £200million to £2billion a year.

Mail
Doctors have voted to stop billing foreign patients for NHS care. Medics backing the motion said charging made health staff ‘complicit in racism’ and ‘racial profiling’. Up to 500 delegates voted overwhelmingly in favour of abandoning the fees at the British Medical Association’s annual conference in Belfast. ‘We are doctors not border guards,’ said Dr Omar Risk in Monday’s debate. ‘Charging migrants for accessing NHS services is a fundamentally racist endeavour – we are complicit in the oppressive regime.’

Telegraph
Hundreds of villages have lost their GP surgery amid a deepening crisis across the country, an investigation reveals. Experts said rural and coastal areas were being hit particularly hard by a national shortage of family doctors, forcing elderly and vulnerable patients to travel ever further for care. The figures reveal 1,946 villages which are at least three miles from the nearest GP practice – 162 more than was the case just two years ago.

Mail
Hundreds of villages have lost their GP surgeries, according to a national survey. Coastal and rural areas are suffering the most with elderly and vulnerable patients being forced to travel further for appointments. The research showed 1,946 villages are now at least three miles from their closest GP practice – 162 more than two years ago. Some patients were required to travel up to 14 miles in rural areas. GPs say they are stretched too thinly because of a shortage of 5,000 doctors.

Telegraph
IVF treatment increases the risk of going on to develop breast cancer, a new study suggests. Data from more than 626,000 women over 21 years found links indicating that women over 40 who undergo the treatment are 65 per cent more likely to develop the disease. The increased risk across all ages was 10 per cent. In preparation for IVF, women are given drugs to stimulate the ovaries into producing more eggs. This also means increased levels of oestrogen in the body, which scientists believe may explain the cancer link.

Sun
WOMEN who have kids using IVF are more likely to develop breast cancer, a study suggests. The drugs used to stimulate their ovaries may increase tumour risk by up to 65 per cent. Experts described the findings as a “wake-up call” and said patients should be told of the peril. Researchers analysed data on 625,712 Danish women, who were tracked for up to 21 years. Some received assisted reproductive treatment, such as IVF, and others did not. Those in the assisted group were 10 per cent more likely to get breast cancer than the other.

Education

Times
Every child must learn about gay relationships before leaving school and they are better discussed in the classroom than the playground, the education secretary said yesterday. Schools will be “strongly encouraged” to talk about same-sex parents with children and teach them about different types of “loving, healthy relationships”, the Department for Education said. The announcement came as a Labour MP apologised in the Commons for offence caused to the LGBT community by backing protests against gay equality lessons outside a Birmingham school.

Post offices

Mail
Britain’s 3,000 most isolated post offices will continue to receive subsidies so they can provide ‘vital’ services to their communities, a minister pledged yesterday. Post office minister Kelly Tolhurst told MPs that the Government will provide extra funding if it is needed to keep the branches open. These post offices, which are all the last shops in their villages, are being kept afloat by a £50million handout from the Government.

About The Author

Debbie has been a journalist for longer than she cares to admit! She has been freelance for the last 15 years and is deputy editor on INDEPENDENCE Daily, specialising in covering the morning press each day.

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9 Comments

T G Spokes
on June 26, 2019 at 10:22 pm

I have always found foriegn Doctors and hospital staff, as good as ours and just as helpful. This is a wonderful thing. Alright some take advantage. But People who aren’t well are worth saving. and are grateful and are mostly friendly..Whenever I or mine have been ill abroad I have always tried to pay. This is always refused, and if its a child ill. they’d rebuild the town for them.

It makes you wonder just how widespread this is? Especially if you consider how much Pakistanis seem to act with impunity, and think they are somehow above the law. Certainly thats the impression I get here in Birmingham, not sure how people elsewhere see it.

Stuart Johnson
on June 26, 2019 at 7:53 pm

-“Mr Johnson also clashed in two radio interviews over his admission that he snorted cocaine as a teenager and disclosed that he had an unlikely hobby – making toy buses out of old wine crates.”

Wow, some serious mudslinging going on there. Is a man who makes toy buses really unfit to become Prime Minister? 😀

euge
on June 26, 2019 at 3:04 pm

Perhaps the remaining UKIP members could be allowed to monitor and bill health tourists . If the quacks want to do it for free, bill them.
And sack the NHS managers who are not doing their job

Phillip Smith
on June 26, 2019 at 12:07 pm

I would suggest a 5% levy on the salaries of all BMA members to pay for the treatment of health tourists.

Snow Elephant
on June 26, 2019 at 1:03 pm

Judging by doctors I am meeting in my daily life – it also could be considered as racist.

Snow Elephant
on June 26, 2019 at 9:58 am

Latest 3 news on UKIP.ORG
1. From 10 June – 2019 about Conference in September
2. From 24 May – 2019 thank you for “vote UKIP in the European Elections”
3. From 22 May – 2019 in regards of European Elections
Can someone poke UKIP with a stick to ensure if it is dead or only hibernating till September?

Michael Keal
on June 26, 2019 at 9:04 am

From Across the pond:

Project Veritas Video.

1984, written all those years ago, was just a story. But now it’s a reality. The technology, machine learning, has caught up.
Years ago, giving Google the correct question got you a range of good answers. But now, depending on topic, one sometimes gets taken in a certain direction. Sometimes it’s political, sometimes it’s commercial. Google’s been corrupted. I now use DuckDuckGo for some searches as it appears to be more trustworthy. Early days.

MWT
on June 26, 2019 at 8:51 am

Migrant doctor Omar Risk wants to treat migrants for free (a mere 2bn quid of taxpayers’ money) – quelle surprise. Actually he conflates migrants with foreign visitors. Not quite the same are they Omar: visitors go back don’t they? I vote this cost is surcharged to the surgery or hospital if its doctors want to do pro bono work.

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